Gone (33 page)

I tasted his skin again. Slid my hands down his body, pressed the full length of my bare skin against his bare skin. Shivered at the contact. Except it wasn’t enough. The feel of him, the taste of him. I needed him against me, I needed him above me, I needed him inside me. I needed him everywhere, right now, this instant.

I dragged him down to the bed, wrapping my legs around his waist. Then he was sliding inside my body and I groaned, or maybe he groaned, but it didn’t really matter. He was where I needed him to be.

At the last moment, I caught his face between my hands so I could look into his eyes as the first wave crashed over us.

“Marry me,” he repeated. “I’ll be a good husband, Tessa. I’ll take care of you and Sophie.”

He moved inside of me and I sighed, and I said: “Yes.”

And as an extra-special bonus for eBook readers:

Turn the page for an exclusive sneak peek of the script from
     AMC’s addictive new series,
The Killing
.

Premiering Sunday, April 3 at 9/8c . Only on AMC.

The Killing

“Pilot”

Teleplay by

Veena Sud

Based on the Danish Series “Forbrydelsen”

Developed by Veena Sud

Copyright © 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

All Rights Reserved.

“THE KILLING”

FADE IN:

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

Near dawn, sky threatening rain. CAMERA TRACKS behind a lone WOMAN running along a wooded trail and over a bridge over railroad tracks. Breathing hard, pushing herself to the limit, sweatshirt soaked through. At first you wonder if she’s a young girl with her ponytail, small frame, and then you see her eyes – wounded, haunted – and realize she isn’t. Meet Homicide Detective SARAH LINDEN – 37, lone wolf type, solo distance runner, pretty without trying, her smiles rare, her intense eyes strange, unblinking.

SFX: Train HORN. SMASH CUT TO –

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - FIELD - NIGHT

A screaming young GIRL runs through the tall grass – away from someone – their flashlight cutting the darkness.

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

Sarah continues to jog down the trail.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

Tree limbs, like long fingers, reach down towards the young girl – 17, sweet-faced, child-woman’s body – running hard, clothing torn, hair soaked with sweat. With blood. This is ROSIE LARSEN and she is running for her life.

Crashing through the brush behind her, an UNSEEN ASSAILANT closes in, FLASHLIGHT cutting through the woods.

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

Sarah continues jogging – intense, driven.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

Rosie crouches down, pressing herself into the side of a tree, making herself as small as possible. Rosie’s terrified, bloodshot eyes, the bruises and cuts on her arms, legs, face.

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

Sarah continues jogging the wooded trial.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

Rosie’s face is suddenly flooded with light. The Assailant has doubled back and is now only a dozen yards away. Moving in with terrifying speed. With a scream, Rosie runs–

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Dawn. Sarah bursts into a clearing, down a small embankment, is an abandoned beach strewn with driftwood, fog.

EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Rosie tripping, scrambling on hands and knees down a small embankment. The flashlight behind her jaggedly cuts through the woods, nearing.

EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

Sarah looks up, goes still. A FIGURE lies on the beach. A blanket of loopy seaweed covering it. Gnats and flies buzzing over it.

Sarah, transfixed, nears the still figure on the sand.

She reaches down, pulls off the blanket of seaweed.

It is a dead SEA LION – one blank eye staring up. Sarah takes it in. RAIN begins to fall.

Even here, on this beach, she is unable to escape these broken, sad bodies. The exhausting knowledge that life doesn’t care. It is indifferent.

Sarah’s CELL PHONE RINGS, startling her–

Off this–

CREDITS ROLL

END TEASER

ACT ONE

EXT. DOCKS - DAY (CHYRON: “DAY ONE”)

A CAR drives down the industrial docks of downtown Seattle. In the distance, through the now heavy rain, the Space Needle, the gray downtown skyline, the waters of Lake Union, all under a breathtaking, brooding sky. A city of contrasts, light and dark, sun and fog, where rain falls eight months of the year. A city surrounded on all sides by waterways, ocean, lakes. Stark beauty and dark underbelly.

The car pulls up to a crime scene. In her sweats and a raincoat, Sarah exits her car in the now intense DOWNPOUR, chomping NICACHEW. A UNIFORM guards the entrance of an abandoned factory, keeping a bunch of LOOKIE LOOS – sullen emo teens and a bug-eyed crackhead – at bay.

A Lookie Loo – male, pierced - catches Sarah’s eye. She holds his baleful stare.

Sarah ducks under the crime scene TAPE, met by a SARGEANT –40s, grizzled, ex-boxer’s battered face—

They stop in front a steel door. Sargeant opens it revealing a dark hallway, stairs– He gives her BAGGIES and a FLASHLIGHT over–

With a smile, she enters…

INT. FACTORY - CONTINUOUS

… Heads up the stairs. Suddenly, the steel door slams shut, plunging her into darkness. It’d be easy to turn back but that’s not Sarah’s style. Instead, she turns on her flashlight – flickery, iffy.

Ahead of her, a ramp tilting up into blackness. Trash, graffiti everywhere. Rain pelts the tin roof, pigeons coo. She’s used to silent, secret places like this. Forges on.

Her light catches a dark SMEAR on one wall. Blood. Below it, a pile of trash. Baggie in hand, Sarah sifts through. Pulls out a sharp deboning KNIFE. Bags it.

Trains her flashlight on a faint trail of BLOOD. Leading to the top of the conveyor shaft, a room. Something in there…

INT. FACTORY - BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS

A large OBJECT, like a side of beef encased in plastic, hangs from a hook. Sarah slowly reaches up, rips it off–

LIGHTS snap on, revealing a group of middle-aged male DETECTIVES in PARTY HATS, clutching a CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE,

Laughing at what’s hanging on the hook: a BLOW UP DOLL. Red mouth around a fake SPLIFF, San Francisco baseball CAP on its head, written across its torso: “BON VOYAGE SARAH”.

They warble off key, the others clapping, hooting, blowing noise makers. They tease Sarah.

Sarah laughing now, much loved, overwhelmed by it all…

EXT. ESTABLISHING AERIAL SHOT - CHINNTENDEN LOCKS - DAY

The waterway connecting Lake Union with the vast Puget Sound. Through the RAIN–

INT. SARAH’S CONDO - DAY

Sarah enters, BLOW UP DOLL under arm, rain coat sopping. Takes in the sterile, empty condo. Packing boxes everywhere.

Rick? Are you still here…? Rick…?

As she moves through the barren rooms CAMERA FOLLOWS. Someone watching, closing in…

Suddenly, Sarah spins around–

Getting the drop on RICK FELDER – salt-and-pepper sexy, established man’s confidence mixed with a former bad boy’s heat–

He grabs at her. Laughing, screaming, she fends him off with the blow up doll. As they tussle–

He flings it to the side, grabs her, they kiss. Visceral, electric, heating up. Over–

Sarah sighs, worried, rests her head on his shoulder.

She goes to an open moving BOX, digs around. Pops a NICACHEW out of its box.

He laughs. Kisses her.

She kisses him. Deep, passionate–

They kiss again, heating up. Their need for one another bottomless. BEEP BEEP–

Rick disengages and moves toward his bags.

Sarah grabbing at him.

He laughs at her playfulness. Grabs his bags. Makes his way to the front door.

This moment honest. No jokes. No masks. They smile.

Rick exits. A beat as Sarah sits in this empty place, her smile fades. She spots the TICKETS on the fridge. As she takes them down, a PHOTO – pinned underneath – flutters to the ground. Sarah picks it up, smiles, tenderly kisses the photo. Pins it back on the fridge.

We see the PHOTO: Sarah and her 13-year-old son, JACK, smiling into camera. Mom and son against the world.

Only thing left in the empty kitchen. She carefully straightens it. Making it perfect.

EXT. SEATTLE PD - DAY

Sarah seen in her office window, cleaning up. A UNI walks past.

INT. SEATTLE PD - SARAH’S OFFICE - DAY

Musty and cramped, mismatched steel filing cabinets, Sarah, in sweater and jeans, tosses manila FOLDERS into cardboard boxes, chewing gum, mid-convo on her cell phone–

Her office door bangs opens, revealing Det. STEPHEN HOLDER –30, ex-narc, dark circles under his eyes. Startled as she–

Sarah hangs up, takes him in: cardboard BOX in his arms. Fish out of water in his Fubu and baggy jeans. Amused–

Not much room to navigate. He drops his box on the desk, knocking over her box, spilling files everywhere.

Holder tries to help, making more of a mess.

Hold picks up the box, she takes it.

He moves to the other side of the desk. Starts unpacking his own box.

Beat. She continues to clean up, not interested in engaging.

Holder shoots a ball into a hoop/trash can. Sarah smiles grudgingly.